Stumped as to how to cook perfect rice? Here is the new, definitive guide! Using just a 1-to-1 water-to-rice* ratio, and pressing a button will result in perfectly cooked rice of any variety every time. Easy to remember, easy to do.
*wet rice (read on to discover the scientific details, and how we came to this easy method for cooking perfect rice in the Instant Pot electric multi-cooker!)

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Cooking rice can be tricky. A lot depends on personal and cultural preferences, and even if we could all agree on the “perfect rice”, the altitude of your location, the hardness of your water, and the age and dryness of the rice may all play a role in the results obtained.

Of course millions of people have been cooking rice for thousands of years and some “tried-and-true” techniques, as well as some myths have developed.

You may have wondered about the markings in the stainless steel liner in your Instant Pot. One of the features of your multi-functional Instant Pot is a rice cooker. Rice cookers have been very popular for cooking rice for many years. The cup lines come from that heritage, and serve as a rough guide for the amount of water for the number of *cups of rice (the small *cup that came with your Instant Pot).

Still, depending on the volume of rice you cook at any one time, your results may vary. One Instant Pot enthusiast, Deborah K.,wrote us to share this account of her success using the Instant Pot to cook traditional Japanese rice (applies to all brands, e.g. Tamaki, Nishiki, Kokuho Rose, etc):

“The ratio of Rice to Water is 1:1.25 (same as brown rice). I rinsed rice; used rice button on Instant Pot; 10-minute natural pressure release. The rice was perfect – even better than when I use our Japanese electric rice cooker (and verified by my Japanese-born family members who did not realize that my “best rice ever” was cooked in your pressure cooker).”

Another Instant Pot user reported good results with the same ratio when cooking brown rice:

“I cook brown rice for 22 minutes – 1 cups of rice with 1 1/4 cups of water – and that was pretty much the most perfect rice I’ve ever cooked “

So we can be fairly confident that for cooking 1 cup of rice, 1.25 cups of water is a reasonably good amount, but what if you want to cook more rice at one time?

Jill Nussinow, “The Veggie Queen“ has long advocated a “sliding-scale” of water to rice, in her ever popular pressure cooking cookbook, “The New Fast Food”. She recently revealed in our new “Instant Pot® Community” Facebook group how she first became aware of this reality:

“My job was to acquire recipes to use, as well as helping direct the writing of the programs to get the software that would adjust for number of servings to work correctly. This is where the algorithms came in. I learned a lot and have passed it on to many people.”

A recent Cook’s Illustrated video is especially relevant to the Instant Pot – which is incredibly (and verifiably) water/moisture conserving, allowing for very little evaporation.

It turns out that the ideal water-to-rice ratio – in the sealed environment of the Instant Pot – is 1:1, with rinsed (wet) rice.

Different varieties of rice require various cooking times (pressure cooking is much shorter than mentioned in the video), but the water to rice ratio remains constant at 1 to 1, simplifying the “perfecting” process tremendously! Science and technology in the kitchen!

The video offers a good explanation of the physics and math involved in getting consistent and pleasing results when cooking rice. Keep in mind when watching that cooking pots differ as to evaporation rates, and it is worth pointing out that the Instant Pot provides a sealed environment, so evaporation is kept to a minimum, giving the most consistent results. Most cooking instructions assume lots of evaporation over time, so they call for more water along with the longer cooking times of some varieties of rice. Watch the Cook’s Illustrated video (and take notes if you are curious, or a skeptic!).

“This is probably why the “Chinese” method actually makes sense now. There are two methods… One uses your full hand: when placed barely on top of the rice, the water should reach a certain point on the top of your hand. And the knuckle method: where you stick your middle finger tip into the water, barely touching the top of the rice, the water should reach the first knuckle. I never understood how it worked but now sort of makes sense. Ancient Chinese secrets.”

Considering all of this, we tested various water to rice ratios, and can confidently recommend this as a convenient starting point in your search for your “perfect rice”:

Lock on the lid, and set the steam release valve to “sealing” position.

Select your pressure cooking time.
~The “Rice” button is timed for white or parboiled rice only.~For other types of rice, set “Manual” to correct time (by pressing “-” to adjust the cooking time) for the type of rice you are cooking, in the case of brown rice, for example select 22-25 minutes depending on your preferences and any local issues, like high elevation.~See abbreviated timing chart below, or use your preferred pressure cooking time for your variety of rice.

Let the rice rest for about 10 minutes after cooking is finished before releasing any remaining pressure, and serve.

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The foundation for this 1:1 recommendation is due to two things being true:
1. The Instant Pot allows very little water evaporation due to Instant Pot’s superior sealing ability.
2. Rice absorbs its volume in water when cooked long enough.

Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, no more mushy rice, with a few stating the rice was cooked, though a bit too “al dente” for their preferences, (these individuals where happier when using a small amount of additional water). Consider this your starting point, record any adjustments you may make, and soon you will have your personal recipe for perfect rice in the Instant Pot!

Pressure cooking times (in minutes) for some common varieties of rice:

Okay looking to make cilantro lime rice for coworkers on Monday. I really don’t want to do a test run and make 8 cups of rice ahead of time. I’m going to use Jasmine rice. Can any one help me here? 1:1 ratio? Time and pressure? Thanks!

After many years of marriage my husband informed me the other night he LOVES brown rice! I never knew, lol.
I tried it in recipes in my IP, failed miserably! Tried it on the stove top, after over an hour of cooking from boiling to low it was still crunchy! Told my husband I’m thinking the only way he will be getting brown rice here is with soy sauce added to white rice. Today I googled again and found this recipe!
It worked perfectly!! No more crunch!! Thank You!!

I was raised using the old imperial cup not the American cup I know how frustrating it can be.
Metric on further confused the matter at least here in Canada. After the war the American influence in recipes overwhelmed much of our printed industry.
The Designers of the Instant Pot while Canadian market most of the initial product to the US who use the American Cup size.
Once you get used to the measurement used you should find everything in the recipes dead easy and work in spite of everything.
I found the Rice setting is where I began as it is fully automated, while it may be true that the water amounts may vary once you have your local differences adjusted (hard water does make a difference)
You will also find as the manual points out different rice requires different amount of water and or cooking time.
Those raises on the old fashioned manual Pressure Cooker know all about this.
From day one I have enjoyed using the Instant Pot as it simplifies my life and minimizes the number of separate appliances.

I’ve been playing with adding rice to SOUP or a dish with a lot of sauce, so the tips here have been very helpful. On the stovetop or my rice cooker, using broth or various seasonings liquids cooking the rice adds a ton of great flavor

Tonight, I thought I’d see if I could do “stir fry” with less standing-in-front-of-the-stove time. started with a pound or so of frozen pork loin, added 1/2 cup each hoisin sauce and roasted pepper “finishing sauce” (sweet-sour-hot). I also added a couple cups of water, some beef bouillon paste, and some soy sauce, then stirred in 1 CUP RICE (converted).

I pressure cooked this on low (soup button) for 8 minutes, releasing the rest of the pressure after 5. The rice was totally done, but the rest of the dish wasn’t, so I added my peppers and onions, sliced my pork and put it back in, and set the instant pot for another 2 minutes at low pressure.

Next time, I’ll try 5 minutes at low pressure for anything with uncooked rice in it, then check and do a second cooking step if needed.

The rice does smell & taste great! And with the amount of liquid I used, there’s plenty of extra sauce, which we like. If you want more of a casserole consistency, I’d use just a little more water than rice.

Used the instructions above – equal amounts plain white rice, wet, and water. Used the rice setting. Let it come down naturally. Not only was the rice not “perfect” – it was mostly raw. Useless directions.

Mine was gummy. Next time I will try the extra 1/4 cup water per cup rice (1 1/4) and see if that helps. I just added a little extra water and cooked 2 min in a covered bowl in Micro this time to soften it up. Trying to get away from the micro in future.

Had some Uncle Ben’s long-grain parboiled rice and thought I would give it a go. I read a lot of comments and contemplated the listed cooking times in my Instant Pot recipe book versus the stovetop time on the bag. The bag said 20 minutes simmering, then five standing. I figured 12 minutes and 10 minutes resting would do the trick. I put 2 cups water in the pot and added two cups wet rice. It turned out great! Thanks for all the info. I’m new to Instant Pot but after three days I am in love with it!

I, too, had good results with the measurements and instructions using par-cooked, not instant, long grain rice. I let it steep for 12 instead of 10 minutes and it was a teeny bit mushy, so I fluffed it up, and left it sit with the lid off to allow the extra moisture to steam off. It is a good pot of rice.

Thank you so much for this informative video. I recently purchased the 8qtr Instant Pot and tried to cook white rice yesterday. 4 cup of rice, and added water to the level 4 mark in the inner pot, and selected rice setting. The pre-program setting was 12min and low pressure, but after IP got to pressure (roughly 11-12min later), the cooking time changed to 22min. Do you know why it changed the cooking time to 22min? When done, the rice was very mussy. after watching your video, Iguess for now I have to use the manual setting with 12min. What about the pressure setting for rice, should I set it to low pressure or high pressure? What the significance of the low and high pressure? Is there a way so that cooked rice not stick to the bottom of the pot? Thanks

Did you ever get an answer? If not, here are my comments. You were correct in there being a one-to-one ratio for the rice and the water, but adding water to the 4 cup line in the pot after you have already added the rice won’t give you that ratio. The rice already takes up a lot of space, so will want to measure out 4 cups of water using a cup measure and add that amount to the pot. Also, the pot will automatically change cooking time based on the weight of food in the pot. So, if you want it to stop cooking before the time it shows when it gets to pressure, just watch the timer and turn the pot off. So, in your case, you could turn the pot off when the timer counts down to 10 minutes. Also, I have found it is good to let the pot sit idle for 10 minutes before manually releasing the pressure. I get a good pot of rice that way. Hope all this helps!

The setting on Instant Pot IP-DUO and IP-Smart series uses Low pressure, for the esthetic reasons. IP-LUX series uses High pressure in rice cooking.

Georgia Reply:February 7th, 2017 at 5:46 pm

I noticed that when I measure with a measuring cup it doesn’t reach the same measure on the marked spot in the pot. For instance, I needed 3 cups of water. I measured out 3 cups and it barely went over the 2C marker on the inner pot. Maybe it was just too much water. try measuring with a cup instead of the pot. hopefully that will fix it

The measures on the inside of the pot are not meant to match the same # of cups of water. They’re to show how much water to use with that many scoops of rice. The rice will displace water and cause the water level to rise.

This probably is too late, but may help others. The”cup” measure that MATCHES the measuring lnes Inside the pot, is the 180 grams cup that comes with the IP. This measures 3/4 of a cup and matches the lines in the pot. Not knowing this messed up someone’s rice because they used the line for the water but used an actual CUP MEASURE for their rice. Consequently, not enough water. If you prefer a true cup size, use it and also use it for the water. True 1:1 ratio. Personally, I think the IP should have been lined for a true cup size to avoid this confusion.

We’ll understand your suggestion regarding the CUP markings on the inner pot. As Instant Pot are being sold in UK/EU as well as US/Canada, the cup size unfortunately are different in the two continent. We’ll add the Liter mark to the inner pot. Nevertheless, the 1:1 water:rice ratio will get the rice cooking right. You then add additional water for softness preference.

We understand your suggestion regarding the CUP markings on the inner pot. As Instant Pot are being sold in UK/EU as well as US/Canada, the cup size unfortunately are different in the two continent. We’ll add the Liter mark to the inner pot. Nevertheless, the 1:1 water:rice ratio will get the rice cooking right. You then add additional water for softness preference.

The Instant Pot’s cup measurements are consistent with every brand of rice cooker and other similar appliances on the market. 6oz = 1 cup is not what it’s saying. That would be inconsistent with both Imperial & Metric measurements.
It means that 6 oz of dry rice is considered, once cooked, equals 1 portion (the standard serving size for 1 person).

Personally I think that Americans should abandon the use of “cup” measures entirely, and use logical and unambiguous quantities of weights for dry ingredients (metric or pounds and ounces – either is fine) and volumetric for liquids (metric or pints and fluid ounces).

“As Instant Pot are being sold in UK/EU as well as US/Canada, the cup size unfortunately are different in the two continent”

Cup measures are NOT used in Europe – they are an entirely North American concept.

Jonathan Reply:June 25th, 2017 at 2:32 pm

I’m an American and completely agree. I love and purposely try to find and use recipes that use weight and volumetric measurements. I find I always have to tweak measurements myself when cups, Tbsp, and tsp are used. It’s also so much easier to halve or double recipes when simple arithmetic can be used for calculations rather than trying to calculate how to properly halve or quarter 2/3 of a cup for example.

Hi, I use a semi brown rice and I am figuring how to do it in the perfect way. When I’m using the manual program, what type of pressure do I have to choose? The Low or the High (as in the Rice setting)? I didn’t pay attention and the first time I used the Rice program (since the rice wasn’t rinsed.. no wet rice and 1:1 ratio) and it obviously came out not perfectly cooked, so I add half a cup and set on manual low pressure for 1 minute and after 5 minutes I released the pressure. It was really good but I would like to do it in one stand….. so, do You think that 13 minutes on Low pressure with a ratio of 1:1,5 an a release after 5 minutes could be the best or You may have other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

I was a little nercous about cooking arroz con pollo, Mexican chicken and rice, in the pressure cooker since i knew I would be using different ratios of liquid to rice than on the stovetop. I first browned the chicken strips with oil on the saute setting,then added 3 c white longgrain rice,browned it adding garlic and onion. I then added 4 c of chicken stock and the rest of the seasonings,and set it on Rice setting for 20 min. It came out great! I hope that helps someone. 😀

Is there any type of insert cooking pot that would sit inside the instant pots inner pot so you can cook rice and then cook a meal in the inner pit after removing the rice and said inserted pot to save time and cleaning of the insert between rice and your meal?

I just saw this thread and Cindy made a comment in December 2015 that applies. In case it doesn’t show on your feed, she said she prefers cooking rice one cup at a time so she puts it in a small stainless steel bowl on the steamer rack. Follows the recommended times and instructions in the post and it works well for every kind of rice. (She does add one cup of water to the large Instant Pot liner bowl as well as the 1:1 ratio of water to rice in her small cooking insert.) Looks like the ideal overall solution to your question as well. I’m trying it right now in a medium sized stainless mixing bowl with brown rice, using the “rice” feature because my curiosity goes overboard, lol. If I get fully cooked rice the first time I will be surprised, but either way, I will still have a clean pot liner and no burned rice.

Thank you for this most informative post. The 1:1 ration works perfectly for every type of rice I cook with (long grain brown, black, white basmati and wild rice). I usually cook just 1 cup of rice at a time and have found that for such small quantities, it is better to cook the rice in a small stainless steel bowl rather than in the Instant Pot’s large inner liner. I place the bowl containing my rinsed rice and water in the 1:1 ratio on a trivet, add 1 cup water to the bottom of the Instant Pot and set the timer as indicated in your guidelines. Works perfectly every time.

If white rice is to be cooked only 3 – 8 minutes, why does the ‘rice’ button on the cooker result in 12 minutes of cook time? I’m confused about how long is the proper time for plain old long grained white rice.

The “proper” time would be what gives you the results you prefer, and there are different approaches. If you are happy with a shorter time, then that’s fine, however the “Rice” program is preferred by many.

Thank you Donna.
My Husband’s relatives in Minnesota just sent him some wild rice which was grown there.
I just happened to get my Instant Pot yesterday and have been itching to give it a test drive so now you know what I’ll be doing today